Astronomy Picture of the Day

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Due to the sudden amount of extra free time I have this month I have now been working on two different personal illustrations one of which I just started (which is another inspired by Halloween) and a Japanese themed one which I had started about a year ago and had almost forgotten about it.

The image to the left is a close-up preview, small section of the very large (Japanese themed) painting that I have been working on titled "Misaki". So far I have put a ton of hours into it including the work I had started a year ago. I am really pushing myself farther with the detail and realism of this piece especially since It will be going into my portfolio. I even hand painted and designed the pattern for her Kimono as well which took a lot of time on it's own. As tempting as it can be to paste a pre-existing pattern onto your artwork I felt it was important to dedicate the time to create/paint this personalized pattern for the character as it tells a story about her as well. Each of the flowers on her Kimono represent different traits of her personality and character :) This wiki guide was helpful link. I don't like to use pre-existing patterns anyway since it's far more fulfilling/rewarding to take the time to create your own.

Apart from some other recent paintings I have finished and others still in the works for my Art-book this one will be posted to my website :).

The full version of this image is 10,000 pixels tall and includes a detailed background of a Japanese garden (which I'm still refining) a few plants and flowers in the foreground and another figure standing beside her. The full figures are shown in the image as well. I'm finally just about done with this image and will be posting it soon. Keep checking back! :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Here is a quick little painting I did for Halloween (which is now a little over two weeks away) on the side of some commissions I've been working on. I wanted to paint a dark ghostly apparition that was beautiful and horrifying - much like the zombie piece I painted last year link. I Went with a very limited palette this time around - It was different for me since I usually work with very saturated color schemes ( I love color) but this was a nice change and it was interesting working with a limited/ less saturated palette for a change. I had a song from Rob Zombie (called "Living Dead Girl") stuck in my head almost the whole time while painting this.